Industries, commerce, textiles and jute minister Khandakar Abdul Muktadir on Wednesday said that the government was giving the highest priority to the small and medium enterprise sector to transform Bangladesh into an investment-friendly, competitive and employment-oriented economy.
‘The greater the number of small and medium enterprises in the economy, the broader the economic activities and the stronger the overall economic flow will be,’ he said while addressing a workshop in the capital.
The Economic Reporters’ Forum organised the workshop, titled ‘National Budget 2026-27: Expectations and Achievements of the SME Sector’.
ERF president Daulat Akhtar Mala chaired the event.
National Board of Revenue member for tax policy Mutasim Billah Faruqui and SME Foundation managing director Anwar Hossain Chowdhury attended the programme as special guests.
SME Foundation general manager Mohammad Jahangir Hossain presented the keynote paper.
Muktadir said that Bangladesh had around 11.7 million economic establishments, most of which belonged to the SME sector, according to the Economic Census of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics.
He said that the sector contributed around 34 per cent to the country’s gross domestic product.
The minister said that the proposed national budget for the 2026-27 fiscal year included incentive and support programmes worth nearly Tk 7,800 crore for the SME sector.
He said that Tk 5,000 crore had been earmarked for cottage, micro, small and medium enterprises from the Tk 60,000-crore stimulus package announced by Bangladesh Bank.
Of the amount, Tk 2,000 crore would be disbursed as low-interest loans on easy terms, he said.
The government has also formed separate special funds of Tk 500 crore each for startups and women entrepreneurs and Tk 300 crore for the creative economy, he added.
Muktadir said that the government was implementing programmes including One Village, One Product, a national designers’ pool, updated SME cluster mapping, youth entrepreneurship development, startup support, mentorship and skills development initiatives and an entrepreneur database.
The minister also said that uninterrupted energy supply would be ensured so that industries could use their full production capacity.
He added that the government planned to gradually transfer underperforming state-owned industrial enterprises to the private sector and build strategic reserves of import-dependent commodities and energy resources.
Muktadir said that logistics costs, which account for around 16 per cent of Bangladesh’s GDP against a global average of 10 per cent, would be reduced through better port management, supply chain efficiency and product traceability.
